Posted by Eric B. on Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 08:57:01 :
In Reply to: Flammable Vulpine? That's great! posted by Bruce B (in ND) on Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 06:43:03 :
Bob,
I have been using mozilla/firefox for years, and I have never had a problem. The only downside I have found is that a small number of websites (mostly private hobby type websites) are written with IE specific HTML tags, so the page will not display correctly. When this happens I just open the page in IE, which I need to do about 4-5 times a year. This is caused by bad code on the part of the webmaster, a good website can be viewed by 99% of the browsers out there.
Some good points about Firefox:
Updates are automatic, about 2-3 times a year I get a warning that Firefox wants to update, and if I click ok it does so without any input from me. So far this has worked much better then the Microsoft method, which requires people to go to another website and download updates.
The updates are less frequent, which I take to mean their code is less vulnerable, as when there is a threat the updates seem to be quickly done.
It seems to have better features, like the "show image" option that I mentioned the other day.
I feel it runs faster then IE.
It is not owned by Microsoft (for me that is a bonus, competition is a good thing)
It is used by a smaller number of web users, so it is less of a focus for people trying to infect your computer.
Go here to download it:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
If you don't like it, just uninstall it, it is free.
As for the firewall, anti virus, etc I have been using Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security for the last year or so, and it seems to be less of a drain on my system resources then the Symantec/Norton products I had before.
A couple of much more clued in friends of mine said it was good, and the guy who fixes my computer when I get stumped likes it as well.
I have never had a virus, or any serious spyware (very low risk cookies only) on my computer, either with Norton, or Trend Micro. In fact I once ran bareback as you say for 6 months in 2004, and when I reinstalled a security suite I was clean. So my surfing habits may not be the best indicator of how well a product protects you from threats, but other people I know also use Trend Micro and have had no problems.
Go here to download, or you can buy it at places like Best Buy:
http://shop.trendmicro.com/
As it has been over a year since I looked into it there may be a new top dog in the internet security world, but for at least the last 2 years I have been told this is the product to buy.
There are lots of practical and personal reasons for choosing the programs we use, so your mileage may vary.
I hope this helps,
Eric
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